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i have travelled all over the world and the North American continent, from the smallest towns to the largest cities and I have never felt like my life was in danger. A few times I felt like I was not in a good place and got out. Or got creepy vibes from someone and figured out how to get away,from the situation.

US has a population of 325,000,000+.

The highest amount of terrorism deaths was 9/11 2001, over 3,000

since then there have been many years with zero deaths.

Deaths from opoids: over 50,000 in 2016, from what I read this is probably more
in 2015 over 35,000 died from automobile accidents
tens of thousands of gun deaths per year in the US
police kill hundreds of people a year. The total this year is over 700
several thousand people each year are killed by their domestic partner

just those first three add up to over 100,000 deaths a year and it barely phases us.

if you are affected of course it means everything, not to make light of the victims and their families

I think so many times the news media gives way too much attention and gives the perpetrators way more than their fifteen minutes of fame. And our lawmakers I swear are trying to scare us to death half the time so they can advance their own agenda.

Rob,
I read that one of the Israelis coping mechanisms is their rapid response to a restaurant bombing, or suicide bomber, etc. Their aim is to clean up the area immediately and restore it as quickly as possible to normal. The goal is to minimize the attack's devastation and therefore any opportunity for the attackers to gloat over it.

Lainey...interesting. And very different from how such is handled in the West - and I don't mean just the US but Western countries in general. Here the media is going to swoop down and cover and cover and cover the story - I'm not saying this is wrong but it does give those who commit these acts the attention they may be craving and it does escalate the fear/paranoia cycle. I can see the Israeli way of handling this - though different - makes some sense. Rob

I don't particularly feel in danger ever either. And my personal statistics would show that I'm right to feel that way. Although I did almost get run over while attempting to cross the street in Paris, but that was due to my incompetence, not to maliciousness in the part of the drivers.

When I lived in NYC I was good friends with a couple of guys from Israel. They were obsessive with the cell phones. If we were getting together it involved phone calls every step of the way. Especially if there was any deviation from the plan that might make them late. I commented to one of them about this once and he explained that it was common behavior in Israel because of the terror attacks. That if you know that your friend/son/mother/whoever was recently at X and you hear about a bombing at Y you don't have to worry about them. I assume today they all just use 'find your friends' on Facebook or some other tracking system on their phones. It would seem to be far more easy to just pull up that app as soon as you hear of an attack, zoom in to that location on the map and see if any of your contact list is nearby.

I'll believe we're becoming like Israel when lots of people start getting so concerned about safety that they feel the need to check in with loved ones multiple times per day. The danger that exists now, at least in the US, is nowhere even close.

Not in the U.S. now, Europe is a bit different. Sure there is some danger of violent crime in the U.S., some places more than others, but that's not terrorism generally.

Driving home from work one day this week I hear a loud boom and I mention on the phone that it's like living in Israel .. or Syria. But is it really? No, because it's not a bomb, it's a fricken firecracker. And is it absurd to have to be distracted by firecrackers that sound like explosives, while trying to drive home through dense urban areas where the driving is completely crazy anyway? Well YES, but that's urban crazy, not "we're just like Israel". When I first got this job someone also thought it was a good idea to set off fireworks into the sky right by a busy street that has traffic so bad you can't even move to get away if you wanted to, and it wasn't anywhere near the 4th of july even, oh I cursed that one.

If you want something to get done, ask a busy person. If you want them to have a nervous breakdown that is.

Lainey...interesting. And very different from how such is handled in the West - and I don't mean just the US but Western countries in general. Here the media is going to swoop down and cover and cover and cover the story - I'm not saying this is wrong but it does give those who commit these acts the attention they may be craving and it does escalate the fear/paranoia cycle. I can see the Israeli way of handling this - though different - makes some sense. Rob

Well, that's exactly what we do in the UK. keep calm and carry on. I am not on Facebook or Twitter, but a friend emailed me that just after the latest bomb at Parsons Green tube station someone posted that oif anyone was in the station and needed a cup of tea, the kettle was on! We are a resilient nation.